Politics, Economics, and Life...from a conservative and libertarian perspective

Friday, April 6, 2012

April's Chart of the Month

Tyler Durden over at Zerohedge offers up a brief report card at month 51 of the recession, and supposedly month 34 of the recovery. His assessment:

Recovery? What Recovery? 4 years after central banks have progressively injected over $7 trillion in liquidity into the global markets (and thus, by Fed logic, the economy), and who knows how many trillion in fiscal aid has been misallocated, to halt the Second Great Depression which officially started in December 2007, the US "recovery" is the weakest in modern US history!

The line--the weakest recovery in modern history--has been getting some play for well over a year now, but it doesn't seem like many are getting it. To that end, Durden has this handy-dandy graphic:

(courtesy of Zerohedge.com)

Note first that the current "recovery" started later than any past recovery. And that in past recoveries, employment went up almost immediately after the recovery began. But the worst of the comparison is still the long term numbers. We're still deeply underwater on employment. Don't believe the hype from the BLS. They're fudging numbers, as I've previously explained (with help from Durden).

So where does that leave us? Well, it should leave us with the recognition that the economic policies--in particular the Stimulus--of the current administration are failing, that they don't work, that they're poorly conceived, that they're based on flawed assumptions about the U.S. economy in particular and economics in general, yet--somehow--we still get pieces from know-nothings touting the results of these policies.

When something doesn't work, you stop doing it. Period. That's the sum total of the lessons we should have learned across the last three years.